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How to Find Vacation Destinations With the Best Value for Canadians

As the Canadian dollar continues to fall in comparison the U.S. dollar, Canadians will look for ways to save on winter travel. A tool offers Canadians useful estimates for the total cost of a vacation to 119 different countries around the world. These estimates include all the important factors that go into planning a vacation: flights, hotels, meals, transportation, activities and shopping.
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Multicultural Couple Inflatable Boat In Bay
Justin Lewis via Getty Images
Multicultural Couple Inflatable Boat In Bay

As the Canadian dollar continues to fall in comparison the U.S. dollar, Canadians will look for ways to save on winter travel.

One of our new partner sites DiscountMyFlights.ca has recently launched a tool to help Canadians find exciting, new travel locations for less money. The tool offers Canadians useful estimates for the total cost of a vacation to 119 different countries around the world. These estimates include all the important factors that go into planning a vacation: flights, hotels, meals, transportation, activities and shopping. These estimates are based on the number of adults, the number of children and the total number of days of the trip being planned.

According to the calculations and data that was generated, Canada ranks 69 in terms of cheapest destination for couples to vacation for two weeks. The estimated cost for this Canadian vacation was over $3,000 more expensive than the cheapest country, Vietnam, assuming of course that a flight would be required.

It's a pretty known fact that many Canadians have not traveled very much within Canada. They are quick to hop on a plane to a nearby Caribbean island, but there are many amazing destinations that are so close to us that are rarely considered, often due to flight prices being so high.

It's no surprise that Mexico comes in as the cheapest destination for a seven-day trip for a couple. Mexico is one of the top traveled places by Canadians.

The tool is also customizable to cater to each person's individual preferences of how they like to spend their vacation. People can select beach, history, nature, culture and food so that the tool can update based on what is most important.

For example, if a family of two adults, two children were traveling for 14 days and they wanted to enjoy the beach, culture and food, the top three recommended locations would be Vietnam, Ukraine and Nepal -- all places I'm sure would not be top-of-mind for a Canadian family of four.

You might be wondering how this tool was created and where the data comes from. The team over at DiscountMyFlights pulled a large amount of flight price data to determine the cost of flights between Canada and each country listed in the index. The data for the other categories like activities, food and hotels that data was pulled from Numbeo, the world's largest cost of living database to determine the average cost across each country using multiple cities in each country.

Keep in mind that the prices displayed in the tool are average prices and not bookable vacations packages. These prices can change and fluctuate dramatically based on availability and market prices. The purpose of this tool is to get Canadians a rough idea as to what they can expect to pay.

The tool is free to use by all Canadians and will be updated annually to account for changes in currency, flight prices and other fluctuations.

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